National cartoonist Dave Granlund's blog features his take on politics and current events -- in cartoon form

Dallas Cowboys' Josh Brent Attends Teammate's Funeral

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By Dave Granlund

National cartoonist Dave Granlund's blog features his take on politics and current events. Dave has been an editorial cartoonist published in daily newspapers since 1977. Born in Ware, Mass., Granlund began drawing cartoons in grade school and at
...

National cartoonist Dave Granlund's blog features his take on politics and current events. Dave has been an editorial cartoonist published in daily newspapers since 1977. Born in Ware, Mass., Granlund began drawing cartoons in grade school and at age 16, he was published on the editorial pages of local weekly newspapers. His eight-year enlistment in the USAF included assignments with SAC HQ and with Headquarters Command, where his duties included work as head illustrator for the Presidential Inaugural Subcommittee and providing briefing charts for the White House and support for Air Force One. As part of NATO in Operation Looking Glass with the Airborne Command Post, he was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal. Dave's newspaper honors include awards from UPI, New England Press Association, International Association of Business Communicators, The Associated Press and Massachusetts Press Association. His work has been nominated numerous times for the Pulitzer Prize. His pastimes and interests include history, wood carving, antique tractors and Swedish language studies.

Dallas Cowboys lineman Josh Brent attended the funeral of his late teammate Jerry Brown on Tuesday, just four days after Brent was charged with intoxicated manslaughter in the car accident that killed Brown, Yahoo reports.

Brent, 24, attended the service at Dallas' Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship with Brown's family. Brent also met Brown's family at the airport and rode with them to the service upon the request of Brown's mother, Stacey Jackson. The entire Cowboys organization attended the service.

A day before the service, Brent - who was released on bail Sunday - visited the team facility where he was checked out by trainers and spoke to head coach Jason Garrett. Garrett described Brent as "very distraught."

"What we want to do as an organization, as players, as coaches and this entire organization is let him know he should feel supported everywhere he turns," Garrett said of Brent on Monday. "That's what we want to express to him. It's a very challenging situation for him. He and Jerry are best friends. They have known each other since college. They were very close in college, very close since they've been here together, and it's a really, really difficult situation for him. We want to make him feel that there are people around him who can help him get through this thing day by day."

Jackson appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday. "I was upset, but I realized that our youth today are young and stupid, and we were all once that age, and we've all done things we're not proud of," Jackson said on the CNN show. "I know Josh Brent, and he's been part of our family since Jerry went to the University of Illinois - all I can do is to pray for him and his family. I know [Brent] is hurting just as much as we are, because [he] and Jerry were like brothers."

Brown, who was 25, went to University of Illinois, as did Brent. The accident occurred early Saturday in Irving, Texas, when the car Brent was driving hit a curb and flipped over. Hours after Jackson's TV interview, an eyewitness named Stacee McWilliams told The Dallas Morning News that she arrived on the scene moments after the accident and claimed that Brent was hesitant to intervene and rescue Brown from the car. She told the paper that she did not recognize Brent and pleaded with him multiple times to help get Brown out as he screamed for help from inside the vehicle.

Brent's attorney, George Milner, refuted McWilliams' account, claiming it does not match what police told him about the accident. "That is absolutely false," Milner said. "What I've been told is that Jerry Brown was never conscious after the accident. ... She better be careful with this one."